New Year’s Eve and Thanksgiving historically are known as big drinking holidays, with police stepping up DUI enforcement in an effort to curb drunken driving.
PennDOT doesn’t consider Halloween a “holiday season,” so it doesn’t specifically track crashes and DUI incidents as it does for Christmas, the Fourth of July and other major holidays.
Quietly, however, Halloween — and the month of October — has risen to near the top of the heap when it comes to DUI-related crashes.
October has been a top-three month for impaired driving crashes the past four years, and seven of the past 10, according to PennDOT data. In 2016 and 2020, more alcohol-related crashes happened in October than any other month.
Last year across Pennsylvania, there were 854 such incidents in October, which took third place after December and January.
Allegheny County drivers accounted for 71 of the crashes, and Westmoreland County drivers 30.
“We all know the dangers of impaired driving,” said Washington Township police Officer Christian Disciscio. “It’s a preventable tragedy that claims far too many lives each year.”
This year, police from across the region plan to treat October like a holiday month.
“Operation Ghoul Busters,” a series of roving patrols running from Friday through Halloween, is designed to catch drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
As program director of the Allegheny Valley DUI Task Force, Disciscio said it’s not unusual for enforcement to ramp up around this time, but this is the first regional effort targeting Halloween that he can recall.
“Halloween has become more of an adult holiday,” said Cathy Tress, regional DUI program administrator for the PA DUI Association. “Kids obviously still trick-or-treat, but there’s also a lot of adult … parties, activities, events.”
According to the National Retail Federation, about 72% of adults plan to celebrate Halloween this year, one percentage point shy of last year’s record. In 2005, when the annual poll started, that figure was just 53%.
PennDOT has no plans to count Halloween as a holiday period going forward, safety press officer Emily Swecker told TribLive. She pointed to a seasonal increase in pedestrian activity and celebrations involving alcohol as motivators for the crackdown.
Halloween can be especially dangerous, Tress said, for the children on the streets and sidewalks.
“You can’t be impaired behind the wheel when you have small children possibly darting in front of you,” she said.
